Ideology and Discourses
The theme
Ideology has been defined as a system of beliefs, attitudes, and values held to be distinguished by society, groups, or individuals. Similarly, ideology is shared by society or culture and usually comprise of ways in which society should function. Through ideology, we can have a deeper understanding of the world. Our ideology influences our goals, interpretation of events, our motivations, and our expectations. In sociology, ideology refers to beliefs or bodies of ideas that underpin an institution and, consequently, result in social relations (Eagleton 2014).
Antonio Gramsci insisted that ideology should be independent of economic determinism. Gramsci even used the term hegemony to indicate the predominance that one class had over the other. Gramsci’s term “hegemony” meant not only economic and political control but also ideology control; that is, the subordinate class would accept the ideas and views of the dominant class and view the concepts like natural and common sense. Geoffrey Nowell states that common sense is the way subordinate class lives its subordination. The agreed and accepted beliefs in any society are those of the dominant class: the class, which is the ruling material and possesses enormous amounts of wealth such as money. However, hegemony is not a forced political movement because people are not obliged to read, listen, or watch these mass media (Gee 2015).
Every media text is an ideological product. This is because these media texts contain the conscious or unconscious and secrets of the producer. Every idea behind any media text, such as photographs and images, is vital for understanding the text. In summary, media texts reflect certain ideologies or values. For example, some texts portray that poor people deserve poverty because they are lazy, dishonest, promiscuous, addicted, and involve in alcoholism (Eagleton 2014).
Discourse can be defined as systems of thoughts comprised of beliefs, courses of action, attitudes, ideas, and practices that aid in the systematic construction of various subjects in the world. Our daily lives are comprised of issues that make up the ideological discourse in society, including crime and punishment, racism, youth, sexuality, gender, employment, and education, and others. Each discourse represents its reality and has different meanings. Different discourses cross over to build up new forms of oppression or privilege. There are various benefits of understanding institutions and discourses. First, institutions that produce and propagate discourses, as well as discourses themselves, reflect control and flow of power in the community. Therefore, institutions and discourses show us who the dominant class can speak, and the low-class individuals who are silenced. Secondly, the communicative process is shaped by institutions. For instance, the media, specifically commercial media, usually operate within certain restrictions like broadcast practice, copyright, and policy. Lastly, understanding institutions and discourses enable us to have a deeper understanding of how communication occurs at the macro-level (Rousseau 2008).
The Case Study
CBS News
Danielle Garrand wrote the article that focused on the viral social media campaign, which asked women to share their abortion stories. Jennifer shared that she was sixteen when a volunteer at school raped her. She was 15 minutes from dying because the fetus had caused internal bleeding. She was in a situation where she had to decide whether to save her life or the fetus. Another woman said that the condom was removed without her consent, and she realized very late because she was drunk. The next morning, she tried pills, but they did not work. Other women also said that they were not ready to have babies because they feared the responsibility, or maybe they did not have financial and emotional support (Garrand 2019).
BBC News
According to an article written by BBC in June 2019, fights are going on in the US over abortion rights. The article states that Louisiana has joined several other states in the US in legalizing an anti-abortion measure that bans the process of abortion once six weeks of pregnancy is reached. In early 2019, around thirty states had set up an abortion ban in their legislature. Fifteen of those states have already worked “heartbeat bills” that ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. This has shown that most of the US citizens are against the idea of abortion and think that it should be abolished entirely.
“Heartbeat bills” focus on making abortion illegal after six weeks of pregnancy. This time is sensitive because the supporters of this bill insist that this is when the heartbeat of the fetus becomes detectable. However, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that the information is wrong and misleading because what is detected at that time is usually a fetal tissue, which later develops to become the heart.
On the other hand, other states such as New York passed a bill into law that safeguarded abortion rights after twenty-four weeks in particular cases. Also, Illinois has emerged as the latest state led by Democrat to protect abortion rights and pass a bill that revoked a 1975 abortion law that demanded to wait periods, spousal consent, penalties for doctors and restrictions on facilities (BBC 2019).
Analysis
From the CBS news article, we learn that certain circumstances can render abortion as a moral act. For instance, the sixteen-year-old Jennifer had to save her life because either of them was going to die. It was moral for her to do abortion to prevent her from dying. There are numerous exceptions where abortion can be allowed as moral action.
Also, the BBC article shows that many US citizens are against the idea of abortion. This is mainly because they think that a fetus is a person who has the right to live. The majority of them want abortion to be banned after six weeks of pregnancy because they think that it is at this time that the fetus develops the heart.
Many social media platforms, such as Twitter, have been used to conceptualize discourse on abortion. We can understand the concept of ideological discourse, which is a vital social practice that enables us to see the power dynamics in society through critical discourse analysis. Morals around abortion have been shaped by the cultural, social, and political institutions. The above article reveals that the majority of individuals do not support abortion, and they think it should be banned. Therefore, the stance of Against Abortion is the dominant ideology as compared to the individuals who are advocating for the right of abortion (Gee 2015).
Discourse as Text
It has been found out that text possesses discursive events elements which have the capacity of changing people’s values, knowledge as well as beliefs. Therefore, people should carry out a systematic and structured text analysis to effectively interpret the ideological discourse language and ensure that we see its effects in the immediate environment. Abortion is a sensitive topic that has brought up various debates, and people keep wondering whether it is moral or immoral (Eagleton 2014).
Discourse as Socio-cultural practice
We can understand the relationship between social structure and the practice agency through proper analysis of the public discourse surrounding abortion. In this analysis, we realize that those who are against abortion often believe that it is a murder action, and they argue that the fetus has the right to live because it is a person. Therefore, these people see that abortion is a violent act against the fetus’s life. On the other hand, we realize that those who stand for abortion often reason that women have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies (Rousseau 2008).
References
Eagleton, T., 2014. Ideology. Routledge.
Garrand, D. (2019, May 24). Viral social media campaign #youknowme asks women to share their abortion stories. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/busy-philipps-abortion-the-viral-social-media-campaign-youknowme-asks-women-to-share-their-abortion-stories/
Gee, J., 2015. Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. Routledge.
Rousseau, J.J., 2008. The social contract and the first and second discourses. The Social Contract and The First and Second Discourses. Yale University Press.
What’s going on in the fight over US abortion rights? (2019, June 14). Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47940659